Technically, the dreaded hook didn’t come out for Jack Bird.
But the maligned half still looks set to miss game time along with boom prop Payne Haas after Brisbane’s 22-20 NRL win over Canterbury.
NSW State of Origin star Bird slipped and suffered a quad complaint while Haas (ankle) left Thursday night’s win at Suncorp Stadium in a moon boot.
At first Bird appeared to have been unceremoniously benched by Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett when he came off the field for the final 10 minutes with the match on the line after another quiet game at halfback.
“It looks like the old fashioned hook,” Fox Sports commentator Braith Anasta said when Cronulla recruit Bird left the field.
But Bennett insisted Bird was battling injury after slipping in the lead-up to the Bulldogs’ 65th try to Kerrod Holland.
Bird tried to gather a Will Hopoate kick metres from his own line but slipped over, gifting Holland a four pointer that gave the visitors a 20-14 lead.
“When he slipped over he felt his quad tighten up a bit. I don’t think he will be available next week,” Bennett said of Bird.
Bird made just 25m from three runs in his fourth game in the Broncos halves alongside Anthony Milford.
Anasta believed Bird’s misfiring display will not be helping his NSW selection chances ahead of June 6’s series opener.
Bird was considered a contender to partner James Maloney in the Blues halves.
“Bird’s only run the ball three times in the whole match playing in the halves,” Anasta said.
“You want him to run the ball, that’s why you’ve got him there.
“I know the NSW selectors are looking at him to play five-eighth for the Blues, well this will do his chances a lot of harm.”
Injury may yet sabotage Bird’s NSW claims with Bennett not confident the star would be fit for next week’s away clash with Manly.
Also in doubt is Haas after he lasted just six minutes off the bench on Thursday night backing up from last round’s dream debut.
Haas, 19, at first appeared concussed when he got up unsteadily on his feet from Bulldogs prop David Klemmer’s monster 56th minute hit and had to be escorted off the field.
But Haas was later seen in a moon boot, sounding alarm bells for Brisbane’s pack which is already without Test forwards Josh McGuire (ankle) and Matt Gillett (neck).
“To think we have got two Australian forwards not playing for us, we lost Payne pretty quickly and (still won) so it’s pleasing,” Bennett said.
“We were behind all night but they did not give up – they are qualities you want to see in your football team.”
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
Yeah the players are gonna high five immediately afterwards. They aren’t going to look at a replay just to make sure a high fiving and back slapping session is appropriate. Bigger issue I have is Anasta almost celebrating a concussed player having to leave the field and fans carrying on as if just because it wasn’t an illegal high shot means that somehow Haas is soft.
Adam
Roar Guru
I think the Milf gets a bit of a bad wrap for some reason. He has run a lot more against the rabbits and storm and looked very dangerous. His try against the Storm was 2015 Milford like. His form last year was, in general, pretty good. If he runs more he'll prove to be a real handful
Emcie
Roar Guru
Milford was going pretty good last year till he did his shoulder, they even had a six game winning streak
steveng
Roar Rookie
As I've said in the game blog 'welcome to the NRL big Haas' there's plenty more where that came from! Klemmer didn't 'shoulder charge' the kid, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time! And as far as 'Pretty poor by bulldogs players high-fiving' what about Boyd's 'smirk' after the Broncos got the game winning penalty, there's nothing wrong with 'high fiving' anything when eventually the game is decided on such a poor decision!
RandyM
Guest
Milford has got progressively worse each year since 2015 when the Broncos made the grand final. He's a long way off playing for QLD again. you would have to say Hunt, Morgan, Munster and Taylor are all ahead of him right now....
Emcie
Roar Guru
Fair enough, we're going to have to do something about that differencial if we want to claw our way to the top, thats for sure
souvalis
Guest
Agree Albo,significant amounts of that game weren’t NRL standard...huge amounts of money being paid to professional athletes who make simple,fundamental game changing errors..
PNG Broncos fan88
Roar Guru
Yet to see our mob make a statement against the lesser sides when they are more than capable is so frustrating. Maybe seeing that 30+ negative points differential is the reason I'm going nuts :(
PNG Broncos fan88
Roar Guru
Brisbane were so good against the Storm, if they played at that same level yesterday they would have towelled up the Doggies by 40. They seem to stoop to the oppositions level every match. Bennett is doing his job in the forwards, the backs coach is uninspiring judging by the way Broncos halves and backs are going.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Well that was a pretty hard match to watch at the ground, and not just because I had a loud mouth near me hurling abuse all night. Neither team looked particularly good and only the closeness of the scoreline kept it exciting. I'll take the win but that was a soft penalty. Having said that the holding down penalty in the first half that gave the Bulldogs a penalty goal was also soft so swings and roundabouts. Some impressions: - Corey Oates is a beast. Please stay on the wing. There are plenty of quality second rowers in the comp, but he is providing massive value on the edge. It also means when he does come in for a hit up his legs are relatively fresh. Watching a winger run over an opposition front rower is always a joy. - Aaron Woods is better live than on TV. you can see the amount of juice he sucks out of the defence. He has such good balance, he is really hard to get to ground. But he sits on the bench way too long. - Jack Bird has been an absolute non-entity this year and last night was no exception. - Milford was off most of the night. - Those young forwards coming through are special. Jayden Su'a was great, and we are all aware now of how good TPJ is. All in all it had the feeling of a close match between two teams who really aren't at the pointy end of the comp this year.
Emcie
Roar Guru
You were replying to a comment about concussion though. Not really sure what your arguement is unless you're just being pedantic over a single word in a paragraph
Adam
Roar Guru
I think there would have to be a players strike where every other NSW half did not want to play. Then they'd still be better off with Gallen in the halves
Matt H
Roar Guru
The Broncos have paid a lot of money here and I'm struggling to remember a significant positive play from Bird so far this season.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Everything going alright mate? You've been a bit negative this year
The Barry
Roar Guru
Boyd slipped over because he tried to put the brakes on instead of just diving on the ball. It was a pretty low effort...
The Barry
Roar Guru
sorry it didn't read like it but I was actually agreeing with you I meant are we supposed to believe that in the first 20 minutes there were four penalties for offside and then nothing for the next 60 minutes. The players didn't start suddenly behaving themselves...the refs put the whistle away The refs are applying the rules arbitrarily so it's absolutely impossible to get consistency
RM
Guest
So about that bad luck you think the Broncos are due...do you mean a run of bad luck like losing three of your most important players in consecutive weekends in McCulloch, Gillett and McGuire (plus injuries to two players last night meaning they finished the game with only 15 fit players)? Or did you mean bad luck in the form of 50-50's and a few outright howlers from the refs going against them, like the Sutton try, the Slater try, the Bird no-try against the Tigers etc? Or did you mean bad luck in the form opposition scoring unlikely tries from the ball hitting the posts (Warriors) or from your own players slipping over when they had the ball covered (x2 vs Bulldogs)? Sure, there are plenty of things that have gone the Bronco's way this season, but they have had their share of bad luck too. It's kind of the way things go, if you watch with both eyes.
The Barry
Roar Guru
He was very good last night Noel. He runs super hard. Building in confidence.
Albo
Guest
An awful game full of errors and dumb play. Both sets of halves looked clueless and flat in attack. The Dogs worked hard to get to a winning position late in the match, and once again threw it away with dumb play and errors. You could sense that the Broncos would somehow get out of jail in the end, yet again. James Roberts seemed the likely one to get them home again, if he could finally get by Josh Morris & Raymond Faitala-Mariner who had bottled him up well all night. Sure enough, he then skips across infield finds a straight runner up the middle who scores under the posts to level things up ( seems only RFM sensed the danger and followed the play across, but too late to hold up Ofahengaue) , and then Roberts hoists a " hail mary" bomb that the Dogs fail to diffuse, which lead to the match winning penalty. The Broncos have had a full season's good fortune on the scoreboard in these first 9 rounds. They should really be about 1 & 8 but for a heap of good luck via the officials, the goal post pads, etc . I'll give them the Warriors win as a well earned win, but they got plenty of help to sneak home in all their other wins. If luck is like "swings and roundabouts" throughout the year, then they are well due some miserable luck in coming weeks. What about that goat track they are playing on at Suncorp Stadium ? What is going on there ? The northwest corner has always been a bog, but seems the whole field is now falling apart ? Clods of turf being ripped out in every tackle. For the Dogs, I can understand their need to do something different to change their attack, but dropping Lichaa is not the answer in my opinion. They missed his defence in the middle last night. Frawley had a shocker, Foran created nothing and missed some crucial tackles, and Benji's brother whilst game, is too small to be defending in the middle of the ruck. They need to re-think this again. If it was me, I would keep Lichaa at 9 , run Benji's brother at 6 or 7 and find another new half. Foran & Frawley can go.
CTSTORM
Guest
I did not mention anything about concussion. He got hit hard and I don't care where. Larry 1950 said he is still a kid, why he he playing against grown men?